Liquid-oxygen container



C. MOTT ET AL LIQUID OXYGEN CONTAINER Filed Jan. 28. 1924 jaw/. afn/JPatented Nov. l0, 1925.

UNITED STATES CHESTER MOTT AND WILLIAM H. MARSHALL, OF DENVER, COLORADO.ASSIGNORS, BYl

1,561,101 PATENT OFFICE.

MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0 PUROX COMPANY, OF DENVER, COLORADO, A CORDOBA'TION 0F COLORADO.

LIQUID-OXYGEN CONTAINER.

Application led January 28, 1924. Serial No. 688,972.

To all whom 'it may concern.'

Be it known that we, CHESTER Morr and WILLIAM H. MARSHALL, citizens ofthe United States, residing at Denver, in the county of Denver and Stateof Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inLiquid-Oxygen Containers; and we do declare the following to be a full,

c lear, and exact ldescription of the inven-4 tlon, such as will enableothers skilled inA the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to thecharacters of reference marked thereon, -which form a part of thisspecification.

This invention relates to improvements in containers for storing andtransporting liquid oxygen.

In our co-pending application, Serial No. 667,297, filed October 8,1922, we have described and claimed a container of the type abovereferred to. Ve have found, however, thatseveral minor changes inconstruction are necessary for the best results and this application istherefore in the nature of an improvement on the construction describedand claimed in the application referred to.

Our invention can be best described and will be most readily understoodwhen reference is had to the accompanying drawing in which the preferredembodiment thereof is shown, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical diametrical section ol" our improved container;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the upper end of the neck of thecontainer;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view showing the lposition of the parts whilepouring lthe liquid; and

Fig. 4 is a section taken on line 4 4, Fi 2.

ur container consists of an enclosing casing 1, preferably ofcylindrical shape and reinforced by means of circumferential beads orcorrugations 2. The top 3 of the casing is conical and has an upwardlyextending central lneck portion 4. l The bottom 5 is preferably upwardlyconvex, as shown inthe drawing. Near the upper end of the c lindricalportion we provide handles 5". Nithin the casing, which .has been justdescribed, the double walled evacuated container is suspended. Thiscontainer fonsists of a spherical outer` container formed from twosemispherical portions 6 and 7 secured together along an equatorial line8. The upper portion of part 7 has an opening to which is soldered thering 9. This ring has lits upper edge spun inwardly to form a flange 10,to the underside of which the corrugated flexible diaphragm 11 issecured. This diaphragm has a central opening for thev reception of thetubular member 12, which is soldered thereto and held in place by rings13 and 14. A washerlike member 15 is secured to the inside of thetubular neck 4 near its junction with the conical top 3. A helicalspring 16 has its lower end resting on the upper side of ring 15 andsupports a ring 17 which, is slida-ble within member 4 and has -aspherically curved inclined portion 18, which supportsl and cooperateswith a similarly curved member 19 that is threadedly connected to theupper end of tube 12. Since the cooperating surfaces of members 17 and19 are spherical, they are adapted to move relative to each` other inany direction so that the outer spherical container may swing in anydirection within the, casing 1. A conical coil spring 20 extends fromthe lower surface of ring 15 tothe upper surface of member 13. Thefunction of spring 2O is to prevent the upward throw of the parts, whichwill sometimes happen if the weight of the suspended parts alone aredepended upon to hold them down. We consider this is a distinct andvaluable improvement over the structure shown in our prior application,where this spring is not present. Secured to the inside of member 12 isa smaller tubular member or pipe 21. This pipe is held in concentricparallel relation with pipe 12 by means of a ferru'le or spoollikemember 22. The lower flange of this member is notched as indicated bynumerals 23 in' Fig. 4, while the upper flange is soldered to pipe 12.This arrangement holds `the two mem- Attention is called to the factythe container. When the parts are assembled as shown and all joints areproper- 1y soldered or sweated, the space between container 24 and theouter container, can

5 be evacuated to a high degree of vacuum.

For the purpose of evacuating the space between the walls of the doublecontalner, we have provided then outer containerwith a nipple 27, towhich the vacuum pump can be attached. Afterl the vacuum has beenformed, the nipple is fused by a suitable flame yand forms a seal. isenclosed in a thimblelike protector 2S. It is evident that when thespace between 15 the two containershas been evacuated, lthe pressure ofthe atmosphere will tend to'colapse the outer container and in order tomake it as strong as possible to withstand this collapsing pressure, itis made as nearly spherical as possible, as this form olers the greatestresistance to collapsing. The fact that the upper side is cut away andhas the vvring 9 secured thereto, does not weaken the structure. Theinner spherical container is merely subjected to a disruptive strainwhich merely puts the material under tension and is only subjected to apressure that tends to collapse it when for any reason the vacuum failswhile the inner container contains liquid oxygen. In this case theliquid oxygen will soon evaporate and the air between the walls of thecontainers will increase in temperature from that of the liquid oxygento that of the circumambient air. This increase in temperature willproduce a corresponding change in volume and this change will take placeso fast that the air will not have time to escape through the vsmallleak, with the result that a high pressure is set up between the wallsof the'two containers. Unless this pressure is relieved, it will eitherburst the outer container or else collapse the inner one'and as thelatter causes the smaller damage, the inner container has been soconstructed that it will collapse before the outer one bursts.

- It 1s necessary to provide a carbon pocket that communicates with theevacuated {spacein order to obtain the degree of vacuum desired. Thispocket is filled with cocoanut charcoal which is heated when the spaceis evacuated so that the occluded gases will be driven oil'. When theinner container is flledfwith liquid oxygen, the low temperaturecausesthe charcoal to become a very eilicient absorbent of gases, with .theresult that the vacuum is maintained at a high de- "grec of efliciency.

In the present construction the carbon pocket is placed on the inside ofthe inner conta'ner and is formed by means of a member 2 which has aportion thereof concentric with the container. A flange 30 exi tendsoutwardly to the container walls andis soldered thereto along the` edgeas indi- The sealed nipple transportation.

cated by numeral 31. This forms aJ pocket, between the outer surface ofthe patch 29 and the inner surface of the container and thls pocket isfilled with charcoal 32. An opening 33 is provided in the bottom of thespherical container and this permits thc charcoal to be introducedthcreinto. This opening is covered with wire screen. Other openings maybe provided it desired. It is evident that the placing of the carbonpocket on Athe inside ofthe inner container does vnot materially weakenit against internal pressure, as this very seldom exceeds atmosphericpressure, but it does materially weaken it against an outer pressurewhich tends to collapse it. As a result of this, if a leak should occurand a high pressure should be generated in what is normally theevacuated space, the lower semi-spherical portion of the inner containerwill collapse, thus preventing serious injury to the other parts.

.Vhen liquid oxygen is transported, the inner container 24 will be heavyand will cause the parts to swing about the bearing surface 18 to suchan extent that the tubular neck 21 will always hang vertically. Theouter container being comparatively light and held in a predeterminedrelation to the inner container by means of the spool 22- and diaphragm9, will assume the same period of oscillation as the inner heavycontainer, with the result that they will never come into contact duringshipment or when subjected to the vibrations of' ordinary Since the pipe2l, which forms theY neckof the liquid container, is of small diameter,it is evident that liquid will flow out only very slowly, if atv all,unless some 4internal pressure is generated. When it is desired to pourliquid out of the container, the casing 1 is tilted in the manner shownin Fig. 3. When the outer container strikes the inner walls of thecasing it will, of course, stop, but the inside container 24 willcontinue to move as the diaphragm 11 permits the outer container to moverelative to the inner one. When the containers comev into contact, therewill be a rapid transfer of heat and the liquid oxygen will startboiling, thereby producing a pressure that will force the llquid outthrough the'neck in a steady stream. It will be noted that I haveprovided member 17 with a number of holes 34 and that openings 35 havebeen provided in the bottom y 5, The purpose of these holes is that whenthe cap36, shown dotted in Fig. 1, is in place any evaporated oxygenwill pass down through thejholes 34 and out through holes 35, therebyfilling the space about the double container with low tem erature gasthat increases the thermal e ciency of the container.

In the drawing the inner spherical container is shown suspended in a slihtly eccentric position with respectl to t e outer container. This isnot an essential feature of the construction and the two sphericalcontainers may be mounted so as to be con' centric.

Having now described our invention, what we claim as new is:

1. A vessel for storing and shipping liquelied gases comprising, incombination, an 1nner container havlng a long, narrow neck rigidlyattached thereto, an outer container surrounding said inner container,"said outer container having an opening, a liexible diaphragm secured insaid opening, said diahragm having an opening, a tubular mem- Eerextending through said diaphragm and rigidly secured thereto, the neckof the' inner container extendin through the tubular member, a ferrulespacing the tubular member from the neck, said ferrule being connectedto said member and neck by an airtight joint, a casing surrounding saidcontalners, said casing having a cylindrical neck portion for thereception of the tubular members secured to the outer containers, auniversal joint between said cylindrical neck and the tubular member,resilient means for supporting said universal joint, and resilient meansopposed to said resilient supporting means.

2. A vessel for storing and shipping lique- 4 fied gases comprising, incombination, an 1nner container having a long, narrow neck rigidlyattached thereto, an outer container surrounding said inner container,said outer container havin an opening, a flexible diaphragm secure insaid opening, said dia- Ehragm having an opening, a tubular mem erextending through said diaphragmv and rigidly secured thereto, the neckof the inner container extending through the tubular member; a ferrulespacing the tubular member from the neck, said ferrule being connectedto said member and neck by an airtight joint, a casing surrounding saidcontamers, said casing having a cylindrical neck portion for thereception of the tubular members secured to the outer containers, auniversal joint between saidcylindrical neck and the tubular member,resilient means for supportingsaid universal joint, said meanscomprising al helical spring, and resilient means comprising a conicalshaped coil s ring for (producin a force tending to move t e partsownwar ing spring.

3. A vessel for storing and shipping liquid oxygen, comprising a casinghaving an upwardly extending cylindrical neck portion, an inwardlyprojectingannular flange near the bottom of the neck, a helical coilspring resting on the upper surface of said ange, a doubled-Walledevacuated container within said casing, said container having a neckportion extending through the spring, a supporting member resting on theupper end of the sprin and slidable within the cylindrical neck o theCasin said supporting member having a spherica y curved surface, aringlike member secured to the upper end of the neck of the container,said last-named member 4 having a spherical lsurface Aadapted tocooperate wlth the corresponding surface of the'supporting member toform a universal joint, and a spring surrounding the neck of thecontainer, said last-named s ring abuttingfits upper end against theower surface of said flange and its lower end against the container.

In testimony whereof we aiix our signaoHEsTER MoTT. WILLIAM H. MARSHALL.

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